Do you feel you are living in some bizarre parallel universe? Is your head spinning, your anxiety spiking? Are you starting to worry you’re on a watchlist because you’ve signed so many petitions? Are you breathlessly hoping that Penthouse gets the sex tape,...
Dave Tourje
The famous physicist Richard Feynman once said, “Men should study hard what interests them in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” Dave Tourje is a living example of this philosophy as he is interested in practically everything from hot...
ON OUR COVER: Tom Knechtel
Tom Knechtel is one of the top ten "best of Los Angeles" shows in 2016, selected by staff writer Ezrha Jean Black.
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and didn’t over-eat as much as I did! I want to start the new year off with a couple of announcements.First, you may have noticed that the name of this blog has changed to Jane Chafin: Offramp. The name references the...
Keith Walsh
Artist Keith Walsh is interviewed by Mat Gleason, discussing his art, an art that stands at the crossroads of aesthetics and activism.
Art Fair
Starring: Jacqueline Novak, Max Wittert, Julio Torres, Eric Schwartau, Steven Phillips-Horst, Jacob Berezin, camera by Daniel Rampulla, sound by Spencer Plassman, edited by Steven Phillips-Horst, featuring music by Physical Therapy.Talk Hole is Steven Phillips-Horst...
Doug Aiken: Looking In
I have seen Doug Aitken’s video work Electric Earth many times over the last 15 years, but seeing it recently at his sprawling new retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, I suddenly grasped that the piece is presenting something new. The only...
ON THE COVER
Marc Horowitz, photo by Stefan Simchowitz, 2015. Marc is featured and interviewed by Christopher Michno.
Eclectic Museums
1. Museum of Jurassic Technology (9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, California 90232)From its name to its introductory slideshow to its lighting to its exhibits to its top-floor tea room and aviary, everything about this museum is enigmatic and conducive to the...
Giving is Sexy
Get your Sexy Beast on, and don’t forget to bring your checkbook. The fundraiser art auction for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles is happening again, and again at the fabulous Ace Hotel Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I understand there are still some tickets left.As...
Food & Beverage
BEST BARS NEAR ART VENUES1. The MandrakeThis laid-back artist-run bar is smack dab in the middle of gallery row in Culver City.2. Molly Malone’sIf you’re spending the day at LACMA make sure to walk a block down Fairfax to this Irish pub.3. The ResidentThis no-frills...
Things to Talk About at Openings:
1. What gallery you’ve recently been picked up by, even if it’s still “in the works”2. Mike Kelley3. Wherever you have recently vacationed. Bonus points if it’s somewhere in the south of France4. Transcending the art market5. Intersectionality6. Which famous (or...
Unconventional Art Spaces
1. KingswellThis skate shop in Los Feliz has had some surprisingly good art shows—most recently by the LA-based illustrator, Bonethrower. 2. The StandardThis downtown hotel is known to host performance and nontraditional art. Recently they held a 24-hour exhibition...
Women Gallerists
1. Shoshana Blank: She and husband Wayne Blank run one of the mainstays of Bergamot Station, Shoshana Wayne Gallery.2. Kimberly Davis/Elizabeth East: Two directors of redoubtable L. A. Louver in Venice, repping a long list of artist-worthies including David Hockney,...
Historic Hot Spots
Yee Mee Loo, Chinatown: Dark, exotic and mysterious, this temple dive bar was the touchstone for all Angeleno art legends. Destroyed by an earthquake. Today, the original iconic matchbooks are a prized collector’s item. Barney’s Beanery, WeHo: Located...
Top 10 Billboard Tags
They loom on the skyline and beckon us to our duty as citizen consumers. Tagging commercial billboards has the bravado of aerial street art and the defiance of subverting corporate indoctrination while reclaiming privatized urban space. Those scrawls are illegal,...
LA Street Artists
1. BeccaBecca Midwood embraces the sometimes lost connection between children drawing on walls and urban artists doing the same. Signed in lower case—becca—her wheat-poster/chalk creations seem the work of a street-art child prodigy.2. NeverResponsible for the Venice...
Artsy Travel Destinations
1. Marfa, TX (because of Judd and Prada)2. Cuba (because Cuba)3. Cologne (Germany because pretentious can be fun)4. Detroit, MI (because every art collective is doing site-specific there)5. Bejing, China (because of hot young artists)6. Tijuana, Mexico (because...